Christian Curau Architecte

Context

An architecture firm lives off two things that digital tools serve poorly by default: showing its work faithfully, and exchanging large CAD files with its partners. The firm needed both, without superfluous complexity.

The site

A deliberately restrained Rails editorial portfolio, centred on project pages. Typography does the heavy lifting; the images breathe. The homepage display order is curated rather than chronological: the firm chooses what to put forward, the way one composes an exhibition.

CCA-FTP

The second deliverable is an internal tool: CCA-FTP, an FTP/FTPS client accessible from any browser, built to share large CAD files securely without installing software. Its distinctive trait: it is stateless. No database to back up or leak; sessions live in an encrypted cookie, the protocol is auto-selected from the identifier, filenames are sanitised, and an invisible CAPTCHA blocks automated abuse. Fewer moving parts means less attack surface and less maintenance.

The stack

Rails 8 for both applications, deployed with Kamal. Two distinct apps, each reduced to its essentials.

Results

The firm shows its work the way it intends and exchanges files without depending on a third-party service or desktop software. Two precise tools, sized exactly to the need, operated by the person who built them.